Survivor recalls Holocaust horror

Rarely does one find situations these days that genuinely shock and emotionally engage 17 and 18 years olds.

We live in a multi-media society, which allows access to an incredible diversity of images and stories.

This amazing resource, I think, encourages a detachment from the difficulties others have to face in life

We are sometimes overwhelmed with reports of suffering, of conflict, of disaster, to the extent that it becomes the norm and we accept it as so.

It was, therefore, with a sense of expectation that I went to hear Josef Perl speak to the Sixth Form at Reading Blue Coat School about his experiences and those of his family as a Holocaust survivor from the Second World War.

Josef talked openly about how, as a young boy living in Czechoslovakia, he was hounded by the Germans, captured and kept as a prisoner in a number of different camps.

He talked emotionally about while hiding in the woods he saw his four sisters and mother lined up and shot by German soldiers.

Empathy and a genuine feeling of sorrow can be difficult concepts for young people and yet through the words of this frail man recounting a 50-year-old story he moved every single one of the 220 students at the school that day.

There was almost a sense of disbelief from the students as to how someone could live through just personal hardship and tragedy and yet still manage to stand before them to tell them his story.

Josef now works for the Holocaust Educational Trust and as a Fellow of Imperial War Museum London.

It was through the trust that two girls from Blue Coat, Vicky Smith, from Caversham, and Juliet Zani, from Wargrave, went last year to Auschwitz, the German-run concentration camp in Poland.

One of the aims of the Holocaust Educational Trust is for two Sixth Formers from every school around the country to learn about the Holocaust,

and then offer presentations for their schools.

For Vicky and Juliet the talk by Josef was even more vivid.

“We spent two days in and around Auschwitz,” Juliet said.

“It it is impossible to understand why more than one million people were killed; women, children, whole families wiped out.”

Vicky continued: “The thing I found most difficult to conceive from Josef’s talk was how you can go from an idyllic childhood as many of us have in this country to a time when people will do the most cruel things to each other.

“Josef's story of survival is amazing.”

There is no doubt that Josef had a very profound impact on the Sixth Formers at Reading Blue Coat School.